A Current Affair

Modern miracle or age-old malarkey? Magnets may be beauty's next wave

They sound like latter-day versions of the snake oil that door-to-door salesmen those unrepentant hucksters that once used to con trusting housewives out of their pennies: Magnetic mattresses that stop arthritis in its tracks! A charged hairbrush to relieve the blow-out-weary wrist! And, to some degree, they are—magnetic cure-alls existed in the third century, A.D., when Greek physicians doled out metal rings to treat arthritis.

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According to one estimate, Americans spend up to $500 million per year on magnetized wellness products, a figure all the more eyebrow-raising considering most magnet-hawking websites promise little more than an "increased sense of well-being." (A prudent choice, given that manufacturers have been threatened with legal action for claims of relieving lupus, sciatica, chronic fatigue syndrome, or, worse, cancer.)

But it may not all be hokum.

Magnets—or, specifically, electromagnetic energy—are key players in our most essential diagnostic tools. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines are essentially supermagnetic igloos that generate images via electrons that vibrate every molecule of water inside the body. And magnets play a role in high-tech therapies that are worlds away from voodoo belts and copper bracelets. Surgeons are beginning to use micromagnets to connect new blood vessel grafts to existing vessels or to seal the ends of arteries or intestines. At the University of California, San Francisco, Children's Hospital, doctors are studying a method of rehabilitating sunken chests by surgically implanting magnets in the sternum, then matching them up with external braces that literally pull the bones forward over time.

As for electromagnetic waves, Pulsed Signal Therapy (PST) devices—which stimulate new cartilage cells and promote tissue growth to relieve arthritis and heal stress injuries—are used in Europe and Canada but are not FDA-approved in this country. Equally innovative, repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) generates magnetic pulses to the frontal lobe, offering a gentler, more targeted alternative to electroshock therapy for treating severe, medication-resistant depression.

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Meanwhile, two relatively small studies have reopened magnet therapy's oldest debate: whether they affect blood flow. One trial, published in the medical journal In Vivo this past January, showed improved micro-circulation in rats' skin after exposure to a static magnet, which the study's practitioners believed may have been due to magnets' effect on the cells that line blood vessels. A test from a 2005 issue of Microvascular Research in which 12 subjects' fingers were alternately placed near sham magnets and real ones at 15-minute intervals was also promising: The magnet-exposed fingers appeared to have an altered blood flow.

Could the static magnets in these tests have worked the way "healers" have claimed for centuries—by attracting the iron in blood, thereby increasing circulation and pumping healing, oxygen-rich blood into trouble zones? According to Leonard X. Finegold, PhD, a professor of physics at Drexel University in Philadelphia who has written extensively to debunk magnet myths, that's practically impossible: The iron atoms in red blood cells are spaced too far apart to create a strong magnetic field. "The iron in blood is about as magnetic as water," Finegold says. "Magnets will not attract the iron in hemoglobin," concurs Paul J. Rosch, MD, an editor of Bioelectromagnetic Medicine, a compendium of the most in-depth scientific research on the subject—but proposes an alternate mechan-ism. "They may affect the millions of charged calcium, sodium, and potassium ions that are also present in circulating blood."

Never one to be left behind, the beauty industry is getting in on magnet fever, though most of its offerings are currently of the party-trick variety. To wit: Reveal and Restore Masque by Annum 21 is packaged with a magnet that magically whisks its charged exfoliating grains right off your face; Lancôme Le Magnetique iron-infused polish comes with an attached magnet, which creates instant, vaguely trippy nail art when held over wet enamel. However, at least one company is tapping into "the force," as Yoda might say. At $160 per half ounce, La Mer The Eye Concentrate contains tiny particles of magnetized hematite—the same shiny, semiprecious stone used in countless magnet therapy bracelets and necklaces. "The eye socket is a little well in which water and blood can pool, forming dark circles," says Loretta Miraglia, La Mer's senior vice president of product development and innovation. "Hematite improves micro-circulation by getting the blood, plus the water molecules that are attracted to it, up and out of there." (It doesn't hurt that the cream is dabbed around the orbital bone with a heavy, silver-tipped applicator that looks as if it were designed by Elsa Peretti for Tiffany and cools the skin for an added de-puffing effect.) La Mer does not release its in-house studies but, according to Miraglia, the company used an infrared device that measures blood flow 100 micrometers beneath skin's surface to detect "a significant increase in micro-circulation upon application."

Understandably, most experts remain skeptical about static magnets, which still have a reputation as a quack's best friend. "You have to ask yourself how strong the magnetic field of those little particles could really be," says Philadelphia dermatologist Eric Bernstein, MD. However, he's willing to acknowledge the technology's potential. "We know for sure that electromagnetism is a powerful force," Bernstein says. "One thing I've learned is never to say, `Oh, that's ridiculous,' right off the bat."

"There's definitely a lot of hooey out there," Miraglia says. "I'm not saying a copper bracelet is going to do the job just because it's magnetic." Still, Miraglia—the kind of out-of-the-box innovator who co-opts NASA spacecraft materials to design an airier face powder and soothes the body with kooky-sounding negative ions during spa treatments—compares the field to fledgling lasers of the 1980s. "There is still a lot to learn, and we aren't quite sure how the mechanisms precisely work," she says. "But it's not going away. It's only going to get bigger and be more important."

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